Alliance tax cuts top 100 billion kronor

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The Swedish government has lowered taxes by over 100 billion kronor ($16 billion) since 2006, according to a new review of the Swedish Finance Department by Sveriges Radio's Ekot news programme.

The most generous tax breaks have gone to people with jobs. The in-work tax reduction together with tax deductions for household services (RUT-avdrag) and tax deductions for home repairs and maintenance (ROT-avdrag) accounts for 80 billion kronor of the cuts. Another 32 billion kronor in cuts come from property and wealth taxes.

The government has lowered taxes in many areas and raised taxes in others. The difference is a 100 billion kronor overall tax decrease, the review showed.

The center-right Alliance government says it is trying to make it worthwhile to work.

“Sweden has been a country that has had very high taxes and this has caused quite large damage in terms of lost jobs and shortages in our business climate,” Anders Borg, the Finance minister told Ekot.

But the new finance spokesman for the Social Democrats, Tommy Waidelich, expressed skepticism to Ekot

“I think we could have improved the quality of our welfare system,” he said.

He told Ekot that his party could have also lowered taxes, but “in a way that didn't bring the tax break to those with the highest incomes,” he said.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks Sweden with the second highest tax rate in the world behind Denmark. Sweden's tax rate as percentage of GDP is 46.4%.

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